Trinity's Game
by Crimson Elemental Alchemist
Summary: A reclusive girl from somewhere in present-day America decides that she has had enough of this petty, half life. Finding the same thoughts running through the mind a rather-feminine boy, she takes the initiative and convinces him to run away with her. OCs
1. Through the Darkness, Light Becomes

_Disclaimer: I do not own _Shugo Chara! _in any way, shape, or form._

_Crimson: Depressing, depressing, depressing . . . **stares at disclaimer**_

_Trinity: **sweatdrops**_

_Kazuhiko: Idiot . . . ._

_Amaya: Trinity, Kazuhiko, Hisoka, Chika, Ryo, and myself all belong to Crimson Elemental Alchemist. Please read on!_

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**Chapter One–**

**Through the Darkness, Light Becomes**

**O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O  
**

Blood welled from the wound, spilling onto the tiled floor. Shouts and high-pitched screams fell on deaf ears as the girl lay on the ground. Her life, quite literally, flowed out of her body. The fear of death, strangely enough, did not dig its nasty claws into her as she waited for the strength to return to her arms and legs so she could stand. An immense calm washed over her, sending her into the depths of her soul where something shone brightly.

No, not Heaven, you dummy. Nor Hell. It was something _else_. Something that she believed in more than anything.

"Mother?" Trinity muttered, blood dribbling over her lips. She took no notice of her weakened state, focusing, instead, on the light only she could see with her unveiled eyes. "Yes," she replied to the voice in her head, closing her eyes and relaxing her tense muscles.

Meanwhile, a boy holding the still-hot gun hovered over her body. Terror made itself plain in his crazed, green eyes as he watched in horror at the dying girl.

"No. No," he mumbled to himself as he dropped the gun which clattered to the ground as he fell to his knees beside the child. His long, black hair curtained his face as he pressed shaking hands over the chest wound where crimson blood still surged out. The pressure did little to help reduce the flow. The girl's skin grew cold, her body heat leaving her with the scarlet liquid. The boy panicked, sensing that his time was running out.

"Help!" he cried to an empty hallway. "Somebody! Anybody, help!"

________________________________________________________________________

**Maybe I should rewind a bit . . . .**

________________________________________________________________________

**.::Earlier that Day::.**

"Yo, Kazu-kun!" cried a girl with flowing black hair that reached to her knees. Her usually-shadowed storm-grey eyes sparkled as she caught sight of the boy she had taken an interest in (not in _that_ way!). She waved him over to where she sat in the lunchroom, smiling all the while and ignoring the strange looks she received from the other students. "So how are you, Kazu-kun?" she asked, singing her newest nickname for him as she did.

_Kazu-kun_–otherwise known as "Kazuhiko Matsuhiro" (first name first)–merely rolled his eyes at her and sat down across from her. He picked up his fork and started pushing the cafeteria's special–spaghetti–around his plate. He only stopped when he found a meatball, so he could eat it. Kazuhiko felt eyes on him, but merely ignored it.

"Kazu-kun?" the girl in front of him asked, seeing as how he was just going to ignore her. Not about to take this lying down, she raised herself up from the table and leaned forward. "Kazu-kun, why do you always ignore me?" she asked, somehow managing to get right in his face. Quite a feat if you consider the fact that he was looking down at his plate.

Kazuhiko jumped back a bit, a light blush staining his cheeks at her close proximity. He tried not to look at her pout, but those dark-grey eyes bored into his . . . he really couldn't resist . . . .

"I'm not ignoring you, Trinity," he admitted, sighing. Trinity gave him a disbelieving stare, not moving from his side of the table. He sweat-dropped. "Really, I'm not. It's just that people will wonder . . . ." he left it at that. His green eyes glanced around the lunch room at all the people who had stopped all their talking and/or eating to watch the interaction between the most popular guy at school and the reclusive but cute Goth.

"Why are you always so worried about what others will think of you?" Trinity asked curiously, just like a child. She even tilted her head at him. "I've told you not to do that anymore. It's all pointless in the end," she reprimanded gently, smiling sadly at a recent memory.

Kazuhiko watched her expression change from inquisitive to despondent in a heartbeat. He briefly wondered what she could possibly be thinking about to make her so sorrowful. For this whole year, he had never once seen her this miserable-looking. Sure, she had her bad days and good days, but she would always put on a big smile around him. Kazuhiko had come to think of that smile as his and his alone.

What the hell? When had he started thinking like that? Need a change of topic . . . .

"Why aren't you eating today, Trinity?" Kazuhiko asked, trying to get his mind off the strange thoughts that had begun to appear lately. He watched her jump at his question. He raised an elegant eyebrow at her.

"I–I'm not hungry," she explained sheepishly, smoothing out her black skirt as she sat back down. She started playing with her black hair as he continued to glare at her.

"You're scrawnier than a stick, Trinity," Kazuhiko argued, giving her a disapproving frown. He watched her squirm in her seat. "What happened this time?" he asked, knowing how often she got in trouble with her family. In his opinion, they were always in the wrong, but he had yet to make her believe that.

Again, that sad look passed over her features, and Trinity bowed her head. She was keeping something from him, and he knew it.

Looking around to see if anyone was listening in on their conversation (and, of course, he found several), Kazuhiko got up from his seat and circled the table. He took hold of Trinity's hand and dragged her out of the cafeteria, ignoring the intrigued stares from staff and students alike.

"Kazu-kun," Trinity asked, "where are we going?" She tried to pull her arm out of his grasp, but he was much too strong for her. For the umpteenth time in her short life, Trinity wished she had a stronger body.

Kazuhiko ignored her as he continued walking down the halls of the elementary school. Every now and again he would randomly turn a corner and walk down a different corridor. Soon Trinity was completely lost, unfamiliar with this part of the building. As Trinity began to mutter to herself about stupid boys and their lousy sense of direction, Kazuhiko finally stopped.

Not realizing that he had stopped, Trinity ran head-first into his back. She jumped back automatically, apologizing before she realized who she was apologizing to. She then started complaining to him.

"Oh, be quiet for a change, okay?" Kazuhiko said without thinking and immediately regretted it. Trinity shut up instantly and looked away from him.

Truth is, before she had met Kazuhiko, Trinity had never spoken a word to anyone. And no one, not even her parents, could figure out why she had suddenly decided to talk with this particular boy. When asked, Kazuhiko simply stared at them and replied with an "I don't know". Kazuhiko had lied to them–he knew; he knew exactly why she spoke only to him. Trinity could see how desperate he was–how much he wanted to get away from it all and just do whatever he felt like. Trinity felt the same way he did.

"What happened?" Kazuhiko asked Trinity again, his voice lowering to a more gentle tone. "Why are you so miserable?" He was going to get answers today. He wanted to help her–his friend–get through everything. And, this time, she couldn't run away.

_'So that's why he took all those twists and turns,'_ Trinity thought to herself grimly. _'He wanted to get me lost so I couldn't find my way out without his help. Which he wouldn't give me unless I tell him everything.' _She looked up at him, a determined look on her face. "Fine," she whispered.

"'Fine'?" he repeated, surprised that she had given in so easily. He shrugged it off and stood, waiting for her to answer.

"I haven't been feeling very well," Trinity admitted, wringing her hands nervously. Her grey eyes dropped to the tiled floor in shame.

"It's not your family again, is it?" Kazuhiko asked when she didn't speak for a few minutes. He tried to sound neutral, but a note of his aggravation must have made itself clear because Trinity smiled and shook her head.

"No, not this time," she assured. "I just don't want to live here anymore." Trinity looked up at him again, grey eyes full of worry and pain. It took a lot for her to say this.

"You don't want to live here anymore?" he questioned, baffled. What did she mean by that? Before he could get his question out to her, an alarm went off. "What?" Kazuhiko spun around and tried to discern what the noise meant.

"This isn't a fire drill. And it's not a tornado drill either," Trinity observed, picking her lip in thought.

"This isn't the time to be standing there thinking!" Kazuhiko yelled at her. He'd be forever-amazed at this girl's strange character. "We have to _go_!" he ordered, grabbing her arm and pulling her forward. They started back the way they came, running full-out. They'd gone about ten feet when piercing screams and frantic yells erupted into the air.

"What was that?" Trinity asked in a surprisingly-calm voice.

Kazuhiko ignored her and continued to run towards the sounds. He didn't even notice how Trinity had started to tug at the grip on her arm.

When they reached the main hallway, everything had quieted down for the most part. Trinity and Kazuhiko stood in the middle of the eerily-silent corridor, panting heavily at their mad dash. Where had everyone gone?

"Kazuhiko," Trinity said, getting his immediate attention when she said his full name.

Kazuhiko looked up at her in slight surprise, taking note of his friend's glazed, grey eyes as they stared in the direction of the cafeteria.

"Gunman," the girl clearly stated as she watched the crazed person standing before them.

The guy stared at them in befuddlement as he backed out of the lunch room, a gun in his hand. His dark-brown eyes moved from Trinity to Kazuhiko and then back to Trinity. His eyes widened suddenly, as if he finally had placed the girl in his memories, and he swung the arm holding the gun in her direction. It was at that moment that everything happened at once.

Kazuhiko, seeing the danger to both himself and Trinity, flew forward and took the offensive immediately. His martial arts training would help immensely with bringing down this insane man, but the gun was another matter.

Trinity noticed, with some relief, that the man's weapon had decided to aim on her rather than Kazuhiko. She readied herself for the inevitable shot, but it didn't come. A blur to her side told her the reason why–Kazuhiko had decided to fight the intruder. Now her heart faltered. No matter what, Trinity couldn't let anything happen to Kazuhiko. He was her first and only friend. It may be selfish and, possibly, inhuman of her, but she wasn't about to lose the only lifeline she had . . . .

The gunman had decided to change his target to the boy who had just kicked him in the head. If that kick had worked it would have been a miracle. Fighting against a madman was the worst kind of bad situation. The mere fact of them being insane meant that they couldn't feel pain–that or they just didn't care enough for it to hinder them. So if an attack that was ill-placed or even slightly off-target failed to fell them, then consider yourself screwed.

Kazuhiko leapt back, out of physical range of the gunman, but not out of harm's way. He had forgotten about the gun.

The madman pulled the trigger.

Kazuhiko closed his eyes tightly, waiting for the bullet to pierce his heart.

Trinity ran as fast as she could in order to reach Kazuhiko. She leapt in front of him, facing the gunman with her arms spread out wide. No fear entered her eyes, no sadness, not even anger at the madman. Pity. She pitied him as he watched her get shot with the bullet he had let loose. The small smile she usually reserved for Kazuhiko, she let him see as she fell backwards. Her calm grey eyes pierced through the haze in his mind as they lost sight of him. As Trinity lay dying, her life's blood pooling around her, she heard the words he uttered, "I'm sorry." And then the sound of something metallic hitting the tiled floor followed by running feet. A few seconds later, and Trinity lost all her senses. Even the feeling of Kazuhiko clinging to her broken body after wrestling the gun away from the stranger, she had grown numb to . . . .


	2. Unveiled are the Eyes of Those Who See

_Disclaimer: _Shugo Chara! _is not mine. It belongs to Peach-pit._

_Crimson: Hello again! I know I haven't been writing much, but things have been really busy around here. By the way, that expression about how time goes by so much faster when you get older, it's true! I didn't think that would start until I was 30 or 40, at least. It should have given me a few more years . . . ._

_Trinity: You're getting distracted again, Crimson._

_Crimson: Oh, sorry! **sweatdrops** Must be a habit I picked up from a certain friend. Anyway, please read on._

_

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_

**Chapter Two–**

**Unveiled Are The Eyes Of Those Who See**

**O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O**

"Trinity . . ." Kazuhiko cried, clinging to his only true friend. Terror had him in its grasp as he felt how cold she had become. "Don't you dare leave me!" he demanded, lashing out in his grief as tears streaked down his face. "You promised to never leave. You swore we'd go to a better place together! You swore!" he accused as he hugged Trinity's limp body close to him. His green eyes squeezed together as his agony choked him. He tried to stop himself from crying but to no avail. He just started to sob even more.

"_Iie_," a tremulous whisper came into his ear. Kazuhiko looked down to see Trinity smiling weakly at him. "No tears," she muttered before falling unconscious.

It was all he could do to keep himself from screaming out in joy as Kazuhiko realized that Trinity still lived. "Thank the gods," he muttered as he, too, fell limply to the floor. His arms still held Trinity close to him even as a pool of darkness formed below the unconscious pair.

Inky tendrils snaked out of the ground, twining around the girl and the boy. Kazuhiko didn't move a muscle as he slept, bewitched by the shadow magic. Trinity, however, did.

She moaned low in her throat and reached out with searching fingers to the pulsating force she could sense in her dreams. Her cool-grey eyes appeared as slits from beneath her eyelashes as she peeked into the moving shadows. A dazed look entered her eyes, and Trinity smiled as she found what she sought. Her pale, slender fingers tightened possessively around a silvery object even after she slipped back into the realm of sleep. "Thank you, Mother," she whispered in her dreams to the incorporeal presence she sensed. A slight bend in the shadows accompanied by a splay of pure, white light were all she received in answer before her world disappeared completely.

**.::an hour later::.**

It was the warm light bouncing off her closed eyelids that woke her up. Such warm and inviting colors were hard to ignore even for an unconscious thirteen-year-old.

Trinity opened her storm-grey eyes to an unfamiliar room. It had dark, wooden walls with framed paintings hanging on them. All sorts of pictures looked back out at her. Ornate hunting scenes, realistic portraits of famous people, detailed portraits of not-so-famous people, elegant Japanese ink drawings, and even some beautiful landscapes greeted her searching gaze. Several wooden tables, dressers, and desks stood against the walls, full of all kinds of clutter. She couldn't see the floor but had a sneaking suspicion that it was probably just as equally messy if not more so. Hardly any light shone in the little room so it proved hard to really make out much. Shadows shrouded everything in darkness with only a wavering, warm glow driving some of it back. The flickering light came from a candle sitting atop a table next to her bed.

Trinity felt her body complaining at her. A soreness spread through her right side, and her neck had begun to hurt. She must have turned over on her side in her sleep, crushing her right arm beneath her body. It took her a few moments to discern that a sharp pain throbbed in her right shoulder. Easing herself up to a sitting position–her head spinning and complaining at the action–Trinity looked curiously down at the injured limb.

Her black shirt she had worn earlier had been removed entirely so that all she saw was her black bra covering her meager chest. The right strap strained against a thick layer of white linen bandages that had been wound around the upper right of her body. A dark-red (almost violet) color stained almost the entire bandage, but there were no bright-red spots peeking through. That must have meant that her injury no longer bled freely.

Trinity let out a grateful sigh before catching the presence of another person in the candlelit room. Her gaze searched the room calmly, but could see no one anywhere beyond the edge of the candle's flickering light. She frowned, not wanting to call out because, well, she just didn't want to call out. She never needed a reason.

"You should go back to sleep, little one," a kind, elderly voice advised from a darkened part of the room. An old man stepped out of the shadows and gave her a tired smile.

Trinity tensed instinctively before letting herself relax at the tone in the male's voice. He meant no harm.

"You must have been in quite a messy predicament there, ne?" the old man questioned, motioning to her bloody bandage. He moved to one side of her bed where a chair stood and sat down. Bending down, he dragged something out from under the bed. Trinity watched in silence as he brought out a first-aid kit and began taking things out of it. "Those bandages are going to need changed again. Bullet wounds tend to do that," he muttered as he began unraveling a long strip of white linen and gauze.

Trinity stared at him for a few moments before gathering the bed covers to her chest (useless action–she didn't have much to be modest about) and letting the right side of her bra fall from her body.

"Your brother woke a few minutes ago. He's in the other room, eating an early breakfast," the doctor conversed, trying to keep the girl's attention off her wound.

Trinity just stared at the picture ahead of her in silence. Five people stared back at her from the photo. They all had smiles on their faces.

"I must say that I was quite surprised to find two children on my doorstep in the middle of the night. And bleeding from a gunshot, no less! I'm just thankful that you got to me in time," the doctor remarked, providing Trinity with some details of what Kazuhiko must have told him.

Trinity let the information sink in, but her gaze still rested on the framed photograph hanging on the wall in front of her. A girl with pink hair smiled shyly at the cameraman as she stood between two boys. One boy had golden hair that framed his pretty face as he smiled. The other boy had spiky brown hair and a big grin on his face as he rested a hand on the girl's head. Next to the blonde-haired boy stood a gentle-looking girl with flowing, purple hair and a small smile. Next to this girl stood another girl with her blonde hair pulled up into pigtails and a great big grin.

"Ah! That's a photo Yaya-chan brought in one day. Yaya's the one in pigtails," the doctor explained as he finished up. "Those are the Guardians of Seiyo Academy. They are her friends at school, in other words." The man snapped the lid of the first-aid kit shut and slid it back underneath the bed. He gathered the bloody bandages and stood up.

"If you want, you can come out to the front. I'll be there and so will your brother. I have a few questions for the two of you," he said, a serious note in his voice. "There's an extra set of clothes for you over there. Probably not your style, but . . ." he shrugged as he motioned to a mostly-clean desk in the corner of the room. "Come out when you're ready and we'll go from there." The doctor left the room then, shutting the door behind him as he went.

Trinity glanced after him for a few silent seconds before returning her attention to the picture. She got up from her bed, disentangling herself from the sheets as she went. Stepping softly along the floor boards, Trinity went to get a closer look at the photograph that showed the Guardians of Seiyo Academy. Upon closer inspection, Trinity finally admitted that it was not a trick of her eyes.

"Guardian spirits, ne?" Trinity questioned to the empty room, eyeing the small, chibi forms floating next to their owners in the picture. She had never seen so many gathered in one place before. Maybe this world would be better than the last.

**.::9 hours later and in Seiyo Academy (after school)::.**

Hotori Tadase (last name first–Japanese way) sighed as he finished the last of the Guardians' paperwork for that day. Amu looked up at him curiously, wondering what was wrong, but too afraid to ask.

"What's wrong, Tadase-kun?" Yaya asked, answering Amu's silent plea. Everyone stopped whatever they were doing and looked up at the King's Chair.

"Oh, nothing. I'm fine," Tadase lied, waving his hands in front of his face as he smiled at them. He sweat-dropped when he saw the disbelieving stares.

"Please tell us, King. What's wrong?" Mashiro Rima inquired calmly as she, too, finished her part of the paperwork for that day.

"Come on, Tadase-kun, we're your friends. Anything that's bothering you bothers us, as well," Fujisaki Nagihiko–the Jack's Chair–reasoned. Everyone else–Guardian Charas included–agreed.

"Um, alright," Tadase admitted defeat. "My parents decided to adopt a couple of orphans who had turned up at the family doctor's place last night. They told me just before school," Tadase explained. "They're supposed to be waiting to meet me when I get home today, but . . ." he let the sentence hang, staring down at his lap where he fiddled with his hands.

"But he's too nervous to meet them by himself," Kiseki finished for him, floating over to his owner's side. "He's been trying to ask you all day if you wanted to come over to his house."

"Oh, so you're going to get siblings then?" Yaya asked him, eyes sparkling. "Yay! Yaya wants to meet them!" she yelled, excited. She jumped around the Royal Garden alongside her Chara, Pepe.

"I take that as a 'yes'?" Tadase asked Yaya, smiling at her display of enthusiasm.

"Consider it a 'yes' for me, as well," Nagihiko volunteered, grinning. "I'd like to meet the new kids." His Chara, Temari nodded her head in agreement.

"We'll go, too, desu!" Suu cried. Ran and Miki cheered next to her.

"Ah! You're not supposed to make up my mind for me!" Hinamori Amu cried at them. Her Chara winced at her loud voice.

"Won't you please, Hinamori-san?" Tadase begged, looking at Amu with pleading eyes. "I'm really too nervous to go by myself," he admitted, suddenly looking ashamed.

Amu reacted quickly, and predictably. "Er. Sure, I'll go. It's only to meet some new kids, right?" she said in her cool-and-spicy tone, even though inside she was fretting over her "Prince's" cute attitude.

"Your character's showing again," Rima commented, taking a sip of her tea. "I'll go, too. It's nice to get away from school and home every once in awhile." Kusukusu–Rima's Guardian Chara–agreed.

"So it's settled then," Kiseki declared. "We'll all go with Tadase to meet his new siblings."

"Why'd you have to declare it?" Pepe asked their "king".

"Because I'm the king and you're my servants," Kiseki explained as if it was the most obvious thing in all the world.

"So cool," Miki muttered in awe as she watched Kiseki.

"Miki-chan . . ." Suu and Ran said together, sweat-dropping at their sister's strange love interest.

"Shall we go then?" Tadase asked his friends, stacking the papers neatly on the table.

"Hai!" everyone said at the same time, ready to go meet some new people and have some fun at the Hotori household while they were at it.

**.::at the Hotori household::.**

"I can't believe that you told the doctor that we were siblings who ran away from an orphanage," Trinity complained, leaning her back against Kazuhiko's own as they sat in the dark confines of the spacious room.

"Hey, it worked, didn't it?" Kazuhiko argued, eyes closed in thought.

Trinity didn't respond although she had to admit the story he had told had been a good one.

After the doctor had replaced Trinity's soiled bandages with fresh ones, he had a chat with the two children. He mostly asked questions to which Kazuhiko mostly answered to (Trinity preferred to keep silent the whole time). Kazuhiko had made up some story about how they were treated poorly at an orphanage and had managed to run away. He even explained that the reason Trinity had been shot was because they had run into a bad part of town (he didn't need to give any details). Kazuhiko didn't even need to come up with the "siblings" part–they were often mistaken for brother and sister. The two looked so alike that it was uncanny.

"So the doctor started calling any of his patients that he thought would want a couple of children," Trinity narrated, going over the last several hours in her head. "He found one family that agreed right away because they have a child around our age who, they say, needs more friends to play with. So now we have new parents, a new home, and a new brother," Trinity finished, counting off all the "new" things that had fallen into her lap.

"Yeah," Kazuhiko agreed. "It's strange, but I'm actually kind of happy," he admitted. He felt Trinity cock her head against his back and smiled.

"So am I," she replied, thinking of how much fun she would have in this new life.

Before either of them could say or do anything else, a voice came from the other side of the shoji screen door.

"Sumimasen, it's Tadase," a boy's voice said as the door slid open to reveal their "brother".

Trinity automatically moved behind Kazuhiko who had put his arms behind him fast or risk falling to the ground. She had noticed more than just Tadase coming into the room. Four other people filed through the door, each one greeting the "siblings". Kazuhiko stubbornly moved aside to expose Trinity's hiding spot. She frowned at him.

"Um, I brought some friends with me," Tadase started nervously. "I hope you don't mind." He hadn't noticed Trinity's little hideaway trick.

"It's not a problem," Kazuhiko assured, seating himself properly. He motioned for Trinity to do the same, but she ignored him and sat propped up against his side. His temple ticked in frustration, but he allowed her some leeway. "I'm Matsuhiro Kazuhiko," he addressed himself and was about to introduce his "sister" when she spoke up.

"My name's Matsuhiro Shizuka, but everyone calls me 'Trinity'," she said clearly to them, watching them with storm-grey eyes.

"'Trinity'?" Tadase repeated, a little perplexed by the odd nickname. The girl just nodded at him. He blushed before speaking again. "Pleased to meet you, Kazuhiko-san and Trinity-san," he said politely, grateful that he didn't trip up on the girl's name. "These are my friends from school. I think they decided to spend the night tonight," he added, seeing everyone's nods.

"Uh?" Amu stopped nodding when what Tadase had just said sank in. Rima held her hands over her mouth to prevent her from taking back her consent.

"My name's Mashiro Rima," Rima said. "Pleased to meet you."

"And I'm Yuiki Yaya!" Yaya piped up, raising an arm in the air. "I bet we're going to be great friends!" she winked at Trinity who felt compelled to give her a small smile back.

"My name is Fujisaki Nagihiko," Nagihiko introduced himself, inclining his head politely at the two. "I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of each other."

"I'm Hinamori Amu," Amu stated, finally able to claw Rima's hands off her mouth. "Nice to meetcha," she said as if she didn't really care. Trinity had to suppress a giggle at what she could tell was an outer character.

Trinity's eyes flitted through the room, studying each face. She never let her eyes hover too long on the Charas though, afraid of Kazuhiko's reaction to her ability to see things that were invisible to his eyes. All in all, she was very pleased with this group of people–they seemed perfectly nice.

"Tadase-kun?" came a feminine voice. Trinity felt her heart freeze at the sound. As everyone's attention turned to the open doorway, Trinity dove behind Kazuhiko. "Is everything okay, Tadase-kun? Oh! Are you having friends spend the night? I'll set things up then." Tadase's mother left them alone once more, not noticing how her adopted daughter had disappeared behind her brother.

"Ah! She's shaking, desu!" Suu cried as she flew to the other side of Kazuhiko to see what the matter was with girl.

The other Chara followed her and saw that she was right. Trinity was crouching behind her brother, hugging her knees to her chest, and shaking quite violently.

"What's wrong, Trinity-chan?" Tadase asked, hearing Suu's cry. He got up from his seated position, concern showing plainly on his face. His friends followed suit.

_Nothing_. That was what she wanted to say, but Trinity couldn't speak. The terror had momentarily taken away her voice, and she could do nothing but sit and wait for the moment to pass. She closed her eyes and buried her face in her knees, ignoring the pain in her shoulder.

"Tadase's mother looks like our mother," Kazuhiko calmly explained to the Guardians. "And they didn't have a very good relationship," he left it at that. It wasn't for him to explain. Trinity silently thanked him.

"That's terrible," Amu muttered to herself, but the whole room could hear. Everyone nodded in agreement.

The Chara, meanwhile, were murmuring words of encouragement to Trinity. Not thinking they could hear her, they gasped in surprise (well, except Suu) when she thanked them.

"Arigatou," Trinity mumbled as the moment finally passed. She looked straight at the Chara with her cool-grey eyes. They looked back for a minute before they all erupted at once.

"She can see us!" they exclaimed, zooming around the girl's head in their excitement.

"I'm Suu, desu," Suu greeted first, bowing her blonde head at the girl. Trinity inclined her head back. "I'm Amu-chan's Chara."

"My name's Miki," the blue Chara with a small bag slung across her body said.

"And I'm Ran," a pink Chara in what looked like a sports outfit piped up. "We all belong to Amu-chan," she explained, motioning to the blue and green Chara, and then to herself.

"I'm Kusukusu," another girl Chara spoke up. Trinity noticed that she wore a clown costume. "Rima's my owner."

"I'm called 'Pepe'," another Chara spoke up, wearing a baby outfit. "I'm Yaya-chan's would-be character."

"And my name is Temari," a girl Chara in a beautiful kimono spoke up. She bowed politely as she floated next to Trinity's face. "Nagihiko-san is my owner."

"You may call me 'Kiseki', commoner," the last Chara declared, swishing his royal cape. "I am Tadase-kun's Guardian Chara."

Trinity smiled happily at them; her moment of fear already forgotten. Her moment of happiness, though, was short-lived when Kazuhiko asked _that_ question.

"Who are you talking to?"


End file.
